


The Stop Traveler

by Toshiba19



Series: Toshi19's Unfinished Works [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Doyoung sent to kill Taeyong, Future Fic, Johnny and Taeil are married and have a kid, M/M, Science Fiction, Time Traveler AU, assassin doyoung, hacker fic, minor jungwoo/jaehyun, minor renjun/jeno, minor taeil/johnny, past luwoo, taeyong is a sensitive bean
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2020-12-24 08:49:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21096722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toshiba19/pseuds/Toshiba19
Summary: Neo City Technologies (NCT) is a secret government organization. The mission of the company is to prevent past mistakes or events from happening.  Doyoung is a stop traveler who lives in the year 3063. A stop traveler's mission is to go back in time and kill people who will become dangerous in the future.Doyoung is tasked to kill Taeyong, a person living in 2019. Taeyong is the person who will later go on to assassinate the founder of NCT.  It seems like an easy enough mission; Taeyong is a naive and innocent person, nothing like the killer Doyoung assumed him to be. But when a hacker in present day attacks NCT, Doyoung becomes indefinitely stuck in the year 2019.  And with each passing day with Taeyong, it becomes harder and harder to accomplish the mission he was sent to do.





	1. Your mission if you choose to accept...

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone so I actually wrote this fic a long ass time ago back when I still was an Inspirit and this was actually supposed to be a woogyu fic. But I have rewritten it for Dotae.

“Who is it today?” Doyoung enters the office building and lays his elbows on the desk as he eyes the boy sitting behind the counter. He places his hands on the desk just enough for the table to light up beneath his palms. 

“I’m good, hyung. Thanks for asking by the way,” Jungwoo gives Doyoung an eye roll and lays his elbows on the desk to give him a glare. Jungwoo looks like the cute and innocent type. Everyone at the office claims that’s exactly the reason why Jungwoo can be so deadly. You would never expect someone who looks so purely innocent with a soft voice and even sweeter smile to kill you in cold blood. 

Doyoung squints and takes a closer look at the younger agent. Jungwoo is still sporting his usual smile, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. He looks exhausted. It’s been a few weeks since his last mission and he’s been assigned to handler duty since then. (Doyoung isn’t sure if it was on the request of the company or Jungwoo himself; Doyoung isn’t one to pry). Jungwoo’s eye bags are more prominent. He’s not wearing his normal office uniform but sweatpants. His hair looks like it hasn’t been washed in days. This wasn’t the typical Jungwoo that Doyoung was used to. This Jungwoo looked like just being here and breathing was a struggle. 

Doyoung doesn’t have friends but if he had to classify people into categories, Jungwoo was probably his closest acquaintance. They had grown up together. Doyoung had taken Jungwoo under his wing at a young age and personally made himself Jungwoo’s trainer when Jungwoo decided to enter this company. 

Back when Jungwoo first started in the company and Doyoung was still a rookie in training they used to play around with time and do a lot of illegal time jumping together. They watched and supported each other as they climbed the ranks. They learned at the same time how important their jobs were and what role they had to play. 

“You don’t look so good,” Doyoung moves forward to pinch at Jungwoo’s cheek; it was something he really enjoyed doing. Usually it brought a smile to Jungwoo’s face but this time, he got a slap on his hand. Doyoung stares intently at Jungwoo’s dark eyebags and makes a tsk sound. 

Jungwoo’s about to give a retort back but stops when his desk lights up and with a ping, a manila folder appears through a slit in his desk drawer. 

Doyoung opens up his hand, palm up, “That’s probably for me.” 

Jungwoo grabs the folder in his hand and holds it just out of Doyoung’s reach. There’s a small frown on his face, “You just came back from a mission. Shouldn’t you rest and take a few days off?” 

Doyoung is about to say something but stops when he sees Jungwoo’s posture change. Jungwoo stiffens immediately and a scowl appears on his face. His usually soft eyes are shooting daggers towards the entrance. When Doyoung turns around he knows why. 

A tall man with impeccably handsome looks and piercing eyes is walking towards him. There’s an air of awkwardness as the man stops in front of the desk right beside Doyoung. Doyoung glances up at Lucas and for a brief second their eyes meet. Doyoung nods politely and Lucas returns it before turning towards Jungwoo. 

Lucas wasn’t the smartest agent in the company but he had enough charisma and charm to work missions in a way no other agent can. He has bright curious eyes and a killer smile. He was a quick thinker who spoke twenty languages and could do a lot of physical missions that were just too physically taxing for most agents.

“I’m here for my next assignment,” Lucas says as he nears the desk. 

Doyoung sees Jungwoo stiffen even more in his seat and mentally wishes Jungwoo the strength to get through this. Someone walks up to Doyoung’s other side and when Doyoung looks over, he feels even more awkward being here in this situation. 

The peach colored haired man, Jaehyung, has a few inches on him. He’s dressed impeccably and there’s an embarrassed but shy look on his face as he avoids looking directly in anyone’s direction. He has the looks that should exude confidence: a soft and nice looking face with a sharp jawline and dimples that appear when he smiles. Today he’s trying to hide from Lucas, using Doyoung as a shadow. It doesn’t work because Lucas turns towards him and immediately a scowl graces his face. 

Hoping to get out of this awkward love triangle, Doyoung reaches out to grab the manila folder with his name on it. He succeeds and just as he’s about to turn around, Jungwoo grabs onto the back of his shirt. 

“You’re not going anywhere,” Jungwoo grits his teeth and shoots Doyoung an angry glare. Doyoung can read between the lines that Jungwoo needs his support. 

Lucas has a dark look on his face and slaps his hand on the desk to get everyone’s attention.

Lucas’s hard look softens and he sighs, “I don’t want to fight anymore, Woo. I told you and I will tell you again: it was a mission. I had to do it,” Lucas moves his hands through his hair in frustration, “Can you just give me my next assignment?” 

Jungwoo doesn’t bother replying as he slips a folder over to Lucas. Lucas grazes his hand over it and it temporarily lights up. Jungwoo then takes a heavy metal stamp from on top of his desk and stamps it on the folder. As the stamp makes contact with the folder, a metal card appears where the stamp has been pressed. Lucas storms away without a glance back.

The peach colored man gives a sigh of relief and moves forward to the desk. His serious face softens into a smile and his dimples appear. Jungwoo rolls his eyes at him as the man places a hand on his cheek. 

“Jung Jaehyun, stop trying to be my knight. That’s not what I need right now.” 

The words are said with a bite to them but it only makes Jaehyun chuckle. He ruffles Jungwoo’s hair and then walks away through the same pair of doors Lucas went through. As soon as he’s gone through the door, Jungwoo throws his head on top of the desk. 

Doyoung looks at Jungwoo and then after five seconds decides to poke the other on his side. He’s already touched the folder and it was glowing, ready for stamped approval. Jungwoo picks his head back up and stamps it. He pushes the folder back at him, complete with metal card. 

Doyoung opens the folder and glances at the summary page, “2019?” 

Jungwoo looks up in excitement, “Oh nice one! Do you have the clothes for that time period? It’s going to be your first time in the 21st century, right?” 

Doyoung shrugs and shifts through the papers in the folder, “He doesn’t look older than me.” He observes the picture of a young man with a pointed face, large eyes and a killer smile. Jungwoo looks over the file and takes the info sheet from him, “He’s about one year older than you. He’s pretty good looking,” he eyes over the rest of the paper before he stops on something, “Wow. You must’ve really impressed the big boss up there.” He points at something on the paper so Doyoung can see, “Lee Taeyong the person who killed Neo City Tech’s founder.” 

Doyoung’s eyes widen as he reads and rereads the purpose of his mission. Being assigned to prevent the murder of their company’s founder was possibly the biggest mission that’s ever been assigned to a traveler. 

Jungwoo types a few things in his computer and without looking up says, “Good luck. I hope you can accomplish this one.” 

Neo City Technologies (NCT) is a secret government organization that was created in 2032. The mission of the company is to prevent past mistakes or events from happening. How do they do this? Well people like Doyoung and Lucas who live in the year 3063 are called travelers. Travelers travel back in time to fix mistakes or make events happen. Some travelers go back in time to fix small things; others go back in time to talk to leaders of the world. There are many types of travelers. But Doyoung and Lucas are stop travelers. Their mission is to go back in time and kill people who will become dangerous in the future. Usually these include mass murderers and criminals who haven’t been captured or killed in the present. Of course stop travelers can’t go back in time and kill all the criminals in the world. Every single person from the past is run through a computer system at NCT. If one person is green-lighted, that means altering them in the past would have a positive effect in the future. 

All travelers are given time limits of how long they can finish their mission. Of course minor travelers who go back in time just to change a small event or talk to one of the future leaders have a small time limit. Stop travelers have the longest amount of time and it varies depending on who they have to kill. Stop travelers are only transported back to the present time period if they complete their mission. If a traveler doesn’t finish their mission within the given time frame one of two things can happen. They either stay in the time period they’ve traveled to or they’re brought back to the present. However the second option rarely happens. Travelers can always request time extensions at the NCT of the time period they’ve travelled to. But if the traveler is transported to a time before the creation of NCT, the present NCT would have to take drastic measures to bring the stop traveler back. They can either send another traveler to retrieve the first one or else leave that traveler to fend for him or herself in the time period they are stuck in.

There are rules for traveling.

1\. You can never change an event that isn’t in your folder. Travelers carry small metal cards that serve as a computer and a map that outlines the events of the future. This info card often tells directions of what the traveler should do and the specific steps that should be taken to accomplish their mission. The card calibrates and regularly updates according to each action done by the traveler.  
2\. No one must know anything about NCT, time-travelling or anything about the future. Any violation of this law results in termination (execution) of the traveler as well as memory removal of those that have heard any of this information. 

Doyoung fingers the metal card, already lighting up in green, ready for use. Jungwoo is finished typing and Doyoung debates on whether he should bring up the question that’s been on his mind. He’s not the type to dwell on office gossip. No one is. But he’s still a bit curious; Jungwoo isn’t wear his wedding ring anymore. 

“So what happened between you and Lucas?” 

Jungwoo and Lucas had been quite the lovebirds around the office. Having this job made little room for personal relationships. Travelers literally lived most of their lives in the past. They’re also paid by commission so in order to get paid they have to accomplish missions. This makes it hard for people to stay away from work. Doyoung eyes the trash bin where Jungwoo had thrown away all the photos of him and Lucas. It was surprising because Jungwoo and Lucas had been head over heels in love with each other even after a year of marriage. 

Things had been slightly rocky when Jaehyun came into the picture. He was Jungwoo’s ex-boyfriend and new to the company. But despite Jaehyun’s charming self and obvious intention of winning Jungwoo back, nothing had happened. Jungwoo and Lucas had remained unbothered and stayed completely in love. 

Jungwoo gulps before turning away, “He traveled back to 3050. It looks like I know who killed my mother.” 

3\. And you must never let your personal life interfere with traveling. 

“Who’s going to be my contact?” Doyoung asks as Jungwoo gets up from behind his desk to direct him to the transportation tubes. 

“Me and Itsunatchi will be,” Jungwoo smiles at Doyoung. They had reached a long hallway of doors and Jungwoo walks straight to Doyoung’s room and opens the door for the other. Contacts are responsible for telling travelers what to do on their missions. They guide the traveler and serve as a second “metal card.” They are responsible for keeping the traveler safe as well as updating the traveler of their missions. Itsunatchi was one of the many machines that worked on determining the impact of events on the future. They were super computers. 

“NCT wasn’t created in 2019. If you need help you need to contact me immediately,” Jungwoo says as he goes inside the control room. He stands for a moment to let the retina scan identify him as Doyoung’s contact. Doyoung takes out the his metal card and scans it on the machine outside of the glass tube. 

“Where will I stay?” Doyoung asks as the glass door swings open and he jumps inside. 

“You remember Suh Youngho?” Jungwoo stands behind a glass wall to work the machines. There’s a microphone in Doyoung’s tube for them to communicate. 

Doyoung remembers the traveler well. He’d only met his senior a handful of times but Youngho left a lasting impression. He’d been so happy, so energetic. He was friendly and actually joked around with the other travelers. Most of the travelers avoided him like the plague for being abnormal but Doyoung enjoyed the few times they met. He liked the way Youngho would start mundane conversations about nonsense with him that ended with them either questioning life or laughing. People nowadays were gloomy. No one was happy with their jobs, prices were rising, and the world was getting overpopulated. They weren’t making underwater cities fast enough to meet the demand and even though a good portion of the population were currently living in space, Earth was still too crowded. It was one of the reasons why having relationships these days was so rare; they were looked down upon. Youngho was probably the happiest person Doyoung had ever met in his present life; he’d met some happy people in his time traveling. However, he hadn’t seen Youngho in a while. He assumed the man was probably promoted; he didn’t want to think that he’d been terminated. 

“He now lives in 2019. We’ve contacted him. You can live with him until you complete your mission.”

Doyoung drops his metal card in surprise. People staying in the past were rare, not unheard of, but definitely rare. Especially such an old time period as 2019. Technology in those days was horrible. Medicine was also pathetic. There were such things as cancer and heart problems. Old age! People died when they were around 80 years old.

“Why is he in 2019? Is he…stuck?” 

“No, he chose to stay there. He travelled to 2016 for a mission. He’s been living there for quite a while,” Jungwoo answers. 

“Why would he want to stay there?” Doyoung asks in disgust. Just the thought of global warming made bile form in his throat. 

Jungwoo looks disgusted as he presses the countdown button on the machine. A countdown marker appears above Doyoung’s head in bright green numbers, “He fell in love.” 

Those were the last words that Doyoung hears before he feels himself being sucked into the tube. He can feel the air pressure tightening around him, making breathing more gradually difficult for him. But Doyoung was used to this; it only lasted for four minutes. The length of time depends on how far back you wanted to go. 

In a flash, Doyoung lands on the ground. Since there was nothing to warn him of the landing, he fell to the ground on all fours, scratching his palms. When he looks up he has to cover his eyes. It was so bright. He knows immediately that it must be the sun. 

Doyoung has his mouth open in awe as he peeks out through his fingers. It looks beautiful. The sun is bright and there are paved roads and so many different things that Doyoung has never seen before. If Doyoung has to describe this time period he would use the words: clean, beautiful and free. The air is fresh and he can smell some type of flowery scent wafting through the air. It wasn’t like back home where every scent was akin to sanitation and bleach. People were walking around leisurely as if they didn’t already have places to be. Everything is so bright and colorful as opposed to the dull grays everyone wore back at home. And the sun! It made Doyoung’s skin tingle as he feels the warm rays of sun shine down at him. So much more different, so much more real than the artificial light they got back at home. The sun had gotten so small back at home that they were lucky during the summer to reach even 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 

“Hyung! Hyung! How is it? Are you okay? I forgot to debrief you on how different it is back there.” 

Doyoung hears Jungwoo’s voice and looks around expecting to see the familiar hologram that would assist him in his missions. But he can’t find the boy and he only gets some weird stares from some people who were walking down the street. 

“Jungwoo,” Doyoung whispers; he starts looking at the ground. Maybe Jungwoo sent a miniature version of himself instead. When he doesn’t see a small Jungwoo anywhere he starts looking through windows or at any stray puddles on the ground. But he only sees his reflection, not Jungwoo’s face. Jungwoo usually uses the hologram method of communication so Doyoung has no idea why the younger wasn’t using that now. 

“Your hand, hyung.” 

Doyoung looks down at his info card which was now in the shape of this weird rectangular thing. On the screen was Jungwoo’s face smiling back at him. 

“You looked like an idiot, hyung. Try not to blow your cover.” 

Doyoung inspects what his info card has turned into. Usually when he transports in time the info card transforms into something that was used in the time period. But it would only serve as a disguise only. It was still be a time card.

“Is this a…handphone?” Doyoung asks. He’s learned so much about those little communication machines of the past. It was completely fascinating to him! 

“A cell phone. An iPhone to be exact. It used to be all the popcray back then.” 

Doyoung nods and sees Jungwoo turn to look behind him on the small phone. 

“I’ll activate Itsu for you now,” Jungwoo says hurriedly and his face quickly disappears. Doyoung sees the familiar map on the phone. This was at least something he understood.  
~~~~~

Jungwoo turns off his line of communication with Doyoung and turns around abruptly to one of the newer handlers, Renjun. He was sweating bullets and wringing the bottom of his shirt in nervousness. 

“What happened?” Jungwoo brings up the schematics for Renjun’s traveler on his watch and quickly follows the smaller man out the door. 

Renjun wrenches open the door to Jeno’s room. Jungwoo hears a lot of loud booms coming from the room and the smoke coming out from underneath the doors didn’t calm him in the least.

“I’m sorry! I don’t know what to do!” Renjun was at the corner of the room behind the control panel as he quickly scans in his card to bring up the history of Jeno’s travel. 

Jungwoo rushes behind the control panel and presses a few buttons but nothing happens. Being one of the senior travelers and tech guys of the company, Jungwoo is not new when it comes to technical problems on the field or the occasional error screen that shows up during a travel but the code he is seeing run across the screen now is something he’s never seen before. He types in a string of numbers and turns back to the machine and pulls a lever. 

“ACCESSS DENIED” 

“Shit!” Jungwoo pounds his hand on the machine and turns back to Renjun. The younger man is shaking beside him, obviously trying to hold in tears, “It’s only his second jump. Oh my god. What have I done?” 

Jungwoo puts his hands softly on Renjun’s shoulders. 

“Renjun, look at me. It’s not your fault. You understand that? None of this is your fault. I think we’ve been hacked. So you need to calm down and let me know exactly what happened.” 

Renjun nodded and took a shallow breath, “He…he finished his mission and I pressed the red button to bring him back…but something happened…and…all of this,” Renjun gestured to the buttons around him and pulled at his hair. The screen was flickering random letters that kept on changing before their eyes. Jeno’s transportation tube had a gigantic red X across the window. Jungwoo had no idea that was even possible. 

Jungwoo got up quickly, alarm written all over his face. 

“He finished his mission? He’s still in there?” Jungwoo says to himself. That was not good. If he wasn’t brought back soon, Jeno might get stuck in time for the rest of his life…or worse, the time vortex. 

“Okay,” Jungwoo tried to act calm but his brain was running through all the possibilities of how to fix this and what had happened and what would happen if he couldn’t fix this. Thinking of a quick solution for the moment, he turns back to Renjun. 

“I need you to put your hand on the glass. We’re going to bypass whatever has him stuck in time.” Jungwoo goes behind the control panel and as soon as Renjun has his palm on the access screen on the tube, Jungwoo starts pressing a few buttons.

There were loud voices outside the hallway but Jungwoo wasn’t paying attention to it, too deep in the code appearing on the screen. 

Alarms suddenly went off in the transportation tube and a loud robotic voice says, “Warning. Unsafe Travel. Warning. Unauthorized Travel. Warning. This is a violation of Travel Law 127.” 

Renjun eyes him and his face slowly morphs into horror. 

“Hyung you’re not going to send me in his place are you?” 

Jungwoo takes a breath and looks up at him with a steady gaze, “Renjun, Jeno is somewhere in the time vortex. You need to go in there and find him.” 

“Wait! I’m not ready for that! I’m ----“ 

“You’ve got this, Renjun. I know you can. I believe in you.” Jungwoo really hopes he’s not making a mistake as he presses the green button on the side. In a flash Renjun disappears. 

Jungwoo looks at the computer screen, tracking Renjun’s heat signature as he travels back through time. Then suddenly the heat signature vanishes from the screen right before his eyes. 

“Jungwoo!” the door wrenches open and Jaehyun runs to him, out of breath. His peach colored bangs are plastered to his forehead and he pushes Jungwoo’s hands away from the control panel.

“We’ve been hacked. All the travel tubes are malfunctioning. We don’t have control.”

The travel tube beeps, announcing a traveler’s arrival. Jungwoo and Jaehyun turn to the tube just as the doors open and Renjun drops onto the floor clutching Jeno in his arms. Jeno is holding onto his chest and heaving large breaths like he’d been suffocating for hours. He gives Renjun a grateful smile, “I knew you wouldn’t leave me there.” And then he falls onto the ground.


	2. A Mole Amongst Spies

Doyoung makes his way down the street as he follows Itsu’s instructions. While on the way, he reads up on Taeyong’s life history. Doyoung is an adaptable person. When you have a job like his, you have to be. Fitting in isn’t difficult. Also because Doyoung was great with history, he knows a lot of the things that were used in this time period as well as some of their pop culture.

“He volunteers at a preschool,” Itsu’s robotic voice says as Doyoung follows the map, “You will need to get him alone to kill him.”

Doyoung nods and feels his pace speed up. He was close. Very close. The thrill of the chase always excites Doyoung. It’s one of the only things that gets his adrenaline and heart pumping: the idea of ridding the future of any evil and making the world a better place to live in. The temporary pleasure of doing something good always excites him. There’s a beep and Doyoung knows he’s reached his destination. He looks up and sure enough he sees the blond haired boy just exiting the school holding a tiny girl’s hand in his.

“Is he a pedofile?” Doyoung asks silently to Itsu. But Itsu makes no reply. He hadn’t expected one. He moves forward and stops when Taeyong hands the girl off to her mother. The little girl rushes back to hug Taeyong around his legs before grabbing onto her mother’s hand. The both of them smile and wave back at him as they walk away.

Doyoung decides the best method of attack would probably be to grab him and kill him in a dark alley. He relishes the idea; he’s seen that happen in some old movies he’s watched for research purposes. He makes his way across the street and hears something loud. He turns to the noise and screams when he sees a gigantic box coming straight at him. The box screeches to a stop right before him, but not before hitting him slightly. He falls down more from shock than from the hit.

“What the fersos was that?” Doyoung exclaims in his mind, “Jungwoo’s supposed to get me out of here!” Doyoung curses his handler. If he was in any danger, Jungwoo was supposed to stop time for him or at least zap him to some other place nearby, OUT OF DANGER 

He feels something warm on his arm and looks up into Taeyong’s worried dark eyes. Taeyong has the largest eyes of anybody he’s ever seen and he was temporarily at a loss of words and thoughts as he stared into them. They displayed so much emotion and concern for him. He was a stranger to Taeyong. It was so different from the people back at home; everyone back there was dull and indifferent. The only person who showed him emotion was probably Jungwoo. And Jungwoo was already considered an oddity. That was one of the reasons why he liked the younger.

“Are you okay? Taeyong asks. Doyoung couldn’t help but admit that Taeyong’s voice was captivating. He wanted to hear more of that voice. 

“He’s in shock,” someone says from behind him.

Doyoung gets up and shakes his head. He was about to grab Taeyong but the other grabs him instead and throws one of his arms over his shoulder. He feels Taeyong’s other arm wrap around his waist from the back.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Taeyong’s voice is filled with worry. Doyoung feels a pinch on his arm and looks at where Taeyong is gripping him.

“You’re bleeding,” he says. He stops like he’s having an inner debate, “Come on. I live nearby. We can fix you up in no time. It doesn’t look too bad.” Taeyong smiles at Doyoung. Doyoung can see the sun reflected in his eyes. 

“My name is Taeyong,” Taeyong says happily as he guides Doyoung towards the sidewalk. Doyoung stays silent. This was too perfect. He had a time limit of six months to kill Taeyong but if things worked out then maybe he would be accomplishing his mission today.

He was suddenly poked and Doyoung turns to glare at Taeyong. The other is pouting at him. It looks so funny but also cute.

“I’m sorry,” Taeyong says in a hurt voice, “I just…thought maybe you could give me your name?”

“Names aren’t important,” Doyoung says in a cold voice. Taeyong’s pout intensifies but he says nothing further.

“Well this is my house,” They’ve stopped in front of a broken run down shed. Okay…maybe it was slightly larger than a shed. 

“It’s not much,” Taeyong says in slight embarrassment, “But I think I have some medicine. I know hospitals charge a lot these days. I would know.” He keeps babbling while Doyoung fingers the gun strapped near his belt.

“Come on,” Taeyong says in an excited voice. He tugs Doyoung by the sleeve, almost making him trip up the step that leads to the small house.

As soon as Taeyong opens the door, Doyoung gets the surprise of his life.

“Holy Mother of Xexos!” Doyoung screams. He grabs onto Taeyong and brings the smaller male in front of him as a form of protection.

“What is that beast?” Doyoung exclaims, “Why don’t you have that thing in a zoo?”

Taeyong laughs as his dog playfully “attacks” Doyoung, “Awww, she likes you,” Taeyong exclaims. He picks her up; she has a tiny white body and splotches of brown and black on her small head. He holds her up right in front of Doyoung, “Don’t be scared! She’s harmless.”

“Harmless, my grandmother!” Doyoung grabs the front of Taeyong’s shirt and pushes him away, “Infection! Rabies! Why don’t you---“ Doyoung stops midsentence as he remembers that dogs used to be pets for humans. Let’s just say in Doyoung’s present time, dogs were much larger and belonged in zoos throughout North America. 

“Oh come on!” Taeyong grabs his hand and drags it across the back of the dog in his arms, “This is Ruby.” Doyoung has to resist smacking the crap out of Taeyong not only because the man was making him touch a dog but because he was also touching him. Without permission!

“I need to use your cleaning facilities!” Doyoung exclaims.

“My…what? Wait. Do you mean my bathroom?” Taeyong chuckles and puts Ruby back on the ground, “It’s down the hall to your left. I’ll go get some of that medicine I have.” He motions down the hallway while he disappears into one of the rooms off of the side of the living room. 

Doyoung stealthily sneaks to the bathroom and is a little annoyed when he sees Ruby following behind him like a…loyal pet.

“This has got to end,” Doyoung says as he closes the door behind him. He takes out his gun that was and checks to see if it’s fully charged. Guns are electronic and have straight line methods. This means that the bullets lock onto their target and won’t stop until the target was brought down. But in order to be more efficient, the gun has to be fully charged or the bullet wouldn’t kill the target. The gun’s charge meter was 100%

“This is going to be sweet,” Doyoung says in delight as he pulls a gear that switches the gun from charge to aim mode.

He almost jumps when there’s a knock on the door. Taeyong’s voice comes from the other side in a happy tone, “Are you okay in there? I have some medicine for your injury.”

Doyoung inwardly chuckles as his hands clench the door knob, “This is too perfect.” He holds up his fully charged gun in front of him with one hand as he twists the knob. 

“STOP!”

Doyoung jumps when hears the scream out of nowhere 

“Are you okay in there? You didn’t fall in the toilet, did you?” He hears Taeyong laugh at his own joke and it just makes Doyoung want to kill him even more.

“Doyoung hyung! Stop whatever you’re doing right now!” The voice is familiar but since there was no one in the bathroom with him, Doyoung assumes it’s Taeyong. 

“How do you know my name?” he was about to wrench the door open when the voice screamed, “Hyung! It’s me, Jungwoo!”

Doyoung stops and looks around. He eyes the mirror, “Jungwoo?”

“You idiot! I’m down here!”

Doyoung looks down and his eyes catch on Jungwoo’s face on his iPhone. 

“Oh. Right,” Doyoung turns red with embarrassment.

Taeyong is still knocking on the door, “You’re not taking a dump in there are you? Is that why you were screaming in pain?”

Jungwoo who hears this, smacks his head with his hand and Doyoung just looks questioningly at him, “Why would I go to the trash in the bathroom? Isn’t the dump where they keep all the trash?”

Jungwoo just shakes his head and Doyoung brings the phone up to him. He can see the younger boy was sweating like crazy and slightly breathless. His hair was messy and he was dragging his hand through it right now. 

“You have to stop whatever you’re doing right now. The mission. You’re not allowed to complete it.”

“Why? What happened?” Doyoung looks alarmed, “I have him right now. I can kill him and come back home!”

“Something is wrong with NCT’s computers,” Jungwoo looks behind him, “We’re in shutdown until the problem gets fixed.”

“What? Are you Ferso kidding me?” Doyoung swears, “This is outrageous! You can’t keep me here! What do I do?”

“I”ll keep you updated. We’re working on the problem right now. Somebody’s tampered with the transportation tubes. I’ve regained control of our communication channels but we can’t send people through time right now. Jeno almost got stuck in the time vortex.”

“Ferso!” Doyoung exclaims, “Is he okay?” The time vortex was somewhere in time but not exactly in any time period. You can never die but you can’t do anything in the time vortex either. You were basically floating around. Doyoung got stuck in the time vortex during his rookie days for twenty minutes but he thought he’d been there for 20 years. He had to go through a year of intense therapy afterwards.

“He’s in recovery. Renjun managed to grab him from the vortex, but we don’t know how long he was in there.”

Jungwoo looks behind him and turns to Doyoung. He’s typing more buttons on the control panel, “You still need to follow Itsu’s instructions. You just can’t kill him. Not yet,” Jungwoo flinches as an electrical wire explodes behind him. 

“What’s going on back there?” Doyoung exclaims, “Jungwoo, how serious is this?” In all of his life, he’s never seen something like this happen. NCT was the leading tech company in the world. They don’t just get hacked out of nowhere. Travelers are almost in no danger of falling into the time vortex. Things didn’t explode; computers didn’t break down. It was almost unheard of. Technology was at its greatest. It was without flaw so why was he stuck here in the year 2019? 

“What do I do, Kim Jungwoo?” Doyoung says between clenched teeth, “If I can’t go home and I can’t kill him.”

“Have you ever heard of a vacation, hyung?” Doyoung tries to say calmly, “Relax. Enjoy the time period. Go see the Han River or Namsan Tower.”

Doyoung groans, “I can see those in our time.”

“Those are replicas,” Jungwoo quickly sends something to Doyoung’s phone. It emits a beep; when he looks down he sees a string of numbers.

“This is Youngho’s number. I’ve contacted him. He’s trying to find you, but if you need help it would be better if you called him.”

Doyoung looks at the digits, “But I don’t know how to use this---“

“Jungwoo!”

Jungwoo turns around as Jaehyun comes up behind him, “I’ll talk to you later, hyung." Jungwoo disappears from his screen leaving the numbers looking back at him.

Doyoung lets out a frustrated groan before opening up the bathroom door. He was immediately greeted with Ruby and her wagging tail. He backs up but the dog walks closer to him and rubs herself against his pant leg.

“Get away from me, you beast,” Doyoung moves his leg but Ruby only jumps around thinking that he wanted to play. She was letting out excited barks as she jumped up and down. 

“She really likes you,” Taeyong comes towards him with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a long roll of bandages, “She usually doesn’t warm up to people that quickly. You should’ve seen her the first time I met her. She was a wild one. Ruler of the streets. Took me a week to earn her trust and take her home with me.”

“She was…homeless?” Doyoung asks. He looks down at Ruby who is looking up at him with a happy expression on her face.

Doyoung doesn’t know if he admires Taeyong for what he did or feels disgusted that this dog didn’t have a home to begin with. He stares at Ruby’s dog eyes staring back at him. She was cute. 

No one had real pets back at home. Every pet was computer generated. The real animals belonged in zoos. Those animals were hard to domesticate, so they were put into the ‘wild.’ There was no such thing as homeless. If you didn’t have a job, house or money by the age of 25 you were either sent to planet Z or terminated. You had a choice but many people actually chose to be terminated. Planet Z was a nice planet. It had enough food, shelter and entertainment to keep one happy for a lifetime without any worries…BUT the loss in pride of not being able to be successful on Earth was a reason why people chose to die. 

“It’s…really…disgusting,” Doyoung makes a face.

“Hey!” Taeyong sounds hurt, “It’s not!” He looks really defensive. Doyoung just shakes his head as he walks past Taeyong towards the door.

“I can’t believe I can’t kill you now,” he mutters.

“Wait, you can’t leave with that cut on your arm!” Taeyong grabs Doyoung by the collar, choking the man in the process.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Doyoung begins coughing. He quickly smacks Taeyong on the head. Taeyong’s eyes widen in shock. He had no idea what just happened. Did this guy he offered to help, just smack him on the head?

“Just as I thought, you have no brain,” Doyoung touches his arm, expecting it to heal at his touch but to his surprise, it didn’t.

“Damn 2019!” he exclaims. He opens the front door and has to blink again as the sunlight hits his eyes.

“Where are you going?” Taeyong exclaims. He seemed to snap out of whatever shock he was in when Doyoung opened the door, “You can’t leave!”

Doyoung turns around and winks at him, “You’ll see me around.”

“This is impossible,” Jungwoo is working through all the hacked code on the main computer, “Each time I break down one of their walls, another three replace it. It’s like whoever wrote this code, knows exactly what I’m doing. They’re ten steps ahead of me,” Jungwoo is sweating as he continues typing on the computer.

He wants to scream, “We can’t keep the computer on if I can’t gain control back.”

Jaehyun is sitting right beside him working on another set of computers, “I’ve issued warnings to all employees within the company and across all branches.”

“Jungwoo!” The door to the room opens and Kun, the head of their foreign division, runs in, “Lucas. He’s stuck in the time vortex!”

Jungwoo freezes and his hands fall from the keyboard, “What?” He stands up and runs towards the door where Lucas works. He swings it open to see Lucas’s handler, Sicheng, working at the control panel trying to open the transportation tube.

“How did this happen?” Jungwoo shouts. He’s punching the transportation tube and only stops when Jaehyun pulls him back.

Kun joins Sicheng and points to the timer above Lucas’s tube which was now flashing 00:00:00 in bright red. 

“I’m shutting off the building control systems,” Jaehyun looks at Jungwoo as if asking if he’s okay. 

Jungwoo looks at the tube before nodding to Jaehyun, “It’s the only way to stop the time limits the travelers have.”

Jaehyun moves out of the room and a few seconds later, all the lights in the building turns off, cascading the room into darkness. All Jungwoo can hear is the heavy breathing of his colleagues before the backup lights turn on and yellow light fills the room. Jaehyun reenters the room with eyes widened in shock. He’s holding his electronic lock-in gun in one hand which alarms everyone in the room, “Someone definitely tampered with the machines.”

“We know that. That was obvious. We’ve been hacked,” Jungwoo says.

“How is that even possible?” Sicheng’s low voice interrupts Jungwoo, “Our machines are the best! Our system has the strongest protection in the world. There’s just no way someone is smart enough to do this.”

“I think I know why,” Jaehyun walks towards them. With the unoccupied hand, he holds up a metal card, “We aren’t being attacked from the outside. Whoever it is, is doing it from inside.” 

“It’s one of us?” 

Jungwoo grabs Jaehyun’s hand and brings it closer to him to look at the card.

“It can’t be. The markings are wrong. The logo is different.”

Kun grabs the card from Jaehyun’s hand and inspects it. He lets out a low whistle, “It’s because it’s from the future. I’m bringing the tech team up here. We need someone to fix the computer and see if they can override the personal connect system on the card. We need to find out whose card this belongs too.” Kun hands the card off to Jaehyun and quickly strides off through a hidden door behind the control panel. 

The metal cards only activate for the traveler who carries it. Anyone else who touches it will only see the disguise the card takes. For the people in Doyoung’s traveled time, they would see the iPhone. It does transform into a real iPhone for any person who wasn’t the traveler. For everyone back at NCT the little metal card was a phony business card for a Chinese company called WayV. The card was textured with ridges to easily identify that it was a NCT info card. 

“You know it’s impossible to see who owns this card,” Jaehyun speaks in a low voice as if he was afraid of anyone listening. 

Sicheng, Jaehyun and Jungwoo all stare at each other when a realization comes to Sicheng, “You know what this means? _We _have their card. They’re still here. The traveler is still in this building. We need to lockdown this building. Now!” Without a word, Sicheng runs off through the passage Kun had disappeared through earlier. 

“Come on. We need to put the building on lockdown. No one is going to leave this building,” Jungwoo grabs Jaehyun’s hand and runs out of the room. They were both unaware that the metal card lit up slightly at the contact. 

“What the fersos am I supposed to do?” Doyoung exclaims. He looks down at his phone where Itsu has the map on the screen. His time limit is frozen on the upper right hand side of the screen but the time line and mission was still written plainly on it.

“Jungwoo,” Doyoung whispers into his phone, “Jungwoo.”

Suddenly there is a tap on his shoulder and he turns around, quickly throwing his hands around the attacker’s throat. He immediately lets go and bows low in apology when he sees Youngho. 

“I’m so sorry. I…uh,” Doyoung begins awkwardly but Youngho only grins at him with a huge smile. Doyoung feels warmth light up through his body like all those times before. It was the Youngho affect. Just one smile could brighten up anybody’s mood. It was no different even after all this time, which is why he threw his arms around the much taller brunette. 

“You have no idea how fersos happy I am to see you!” Doyoung exclaims. He felt like he could cry right there at seeing a familiar face. A welcoming face. He wasn’t alone on this Xexos forsaken time period. 

Youngho laughed and Doyoung felt like he could hear wind chimes. He backed away. Youngho grinned at him and he couldn’t help but think that Youngho belonged here. In the ancient time of 2019 where global warming existed and human error and crimes. Youngho fit in to this happy world. Doyoung didn’t get it himself. How could such an imperfect time period contain so many happy people?

“It’s been a while,” Youngho said happily.

“I know,” Doyoung grins as he puts an arm around Youngho, “So how’ve you been holding up? I don’t think I would be able to survive here.”

Youngho grins, “You’d be amazed at how easy it is actually. Anyways, I think it’s worth it,” he tugs Doyoung along beside him so they start walking. “There’s something beautiful in living in an imperfect world. You never know what’s going to happen from one day to the next. We don’t live in these perfect routines. Each day is a new day. It’s good to wake up in the morning and decide what you want to do, not because you have to but because you want to. It’s hard sometimes. Things aren’t easy. The world is crappy. People die every day for the most horrific or mundane reasons, but it’s a beautiful time.”

After a few minutes of walking, they stop in front of a middle sized house with a white fence. The porch door was open and Doyoung can smell something good coming from inside. He also notices a toy play set on the lawn.

“It might not be as big as the houses back in our time but---“

“This is your house?” Doyoung’s mouth is open in shock. It was so…small. How could it hold anything inside it?

“Daddy!”

Doyoung’s eyes widen as he hears a little boy’s voice and then it widens even more when a little boy comes running out. The boy stumbles a little bit but then rights himself and runs right into Youngho’s open arms. 

“Hey Sungie,” Youngho clutches the boy in his arms and hoists him up, “Jisung, this is uncle Doyoung. He will be staying with us for a bit.” 

“You made a kid?” Doyoung observes the kid and backs up when Jisung sticks out his tongue in a pout.

“Nah,” Youngho laughs as he puts one arm around Doyoung to steer him into the house, “We can’t do that here. We have to adopt.”

“Adopt? What is that?” Doyoung asks. In Doyoung’s time, having children was rare. People lived to such an old age that having children was the ultimate commitment of a couple. As mentioned earlier, couples were rare as well. Sometimes children were created in a lab, authentically of course. They got DNA of two people to create the child. It was even possible for two people of the same gender to have biological children.

“He’s not yours?” Doyoung whispers.

“Of course he is,” Youngho exclaims. He doesn’t look offended by the question as he puts Jisung down on the ground. The boy quickly hides behind Youngho’s leg, peeking out slightly as he observes Doyoung. 

“Oh come on, Sungie; he won’t hurt you.”

Doyoung bends down and following what Youngho did earlier, he opens up his arms. Jisung runs to him with a little giggle and Doyoung can’t help but chuckle as Jisung hugs him. He lifts the boy off of his feet and inspects Jisung’s face, “He’s an interesting specimen.”

Jisung smiles at him and quickly pushes Doyoung’s cheeks together, “Daddy! He looks like a bunny!”

Youngho laughs and Doyoung glares at him.

“It’s okay. Jisungie likes calling everybody animals,” a man comes out of the house with a neon green apron on. But what grabs Doyoung’s attention was his face which was completely black. Doyoung backs away slightly at the sight. The man looked like a mud monster. So this was Youngho’s love?

“Babe, I told you not to cook!” Youngho laughs as he runs over to the much shorter man. He grabs the collar portion of the apron and uses it to wipe his husband’s face. Like magic, the man’s’ face turned from charcoal black to a nice honey skinned color. 

“I tried to surprise you,” the man was pouting and Youngho ducked down to kiss the pout off of the shorter man’s face. 

“Well you definitely accomplished that,” Youngho wipes more at the man’s face. Doyoung looked at the affectionate couple. He couldn’t help feeling jealous. He’d never been in love. He didn’t even know what love was, but he wished he could care about someone like the way Youngho and his husband cared for each other. He wished someone would care about him like that. And all of a sudden he thought of Taeyong and the way he’d looked at Doyoung with worried eyes just after Doyoung was hit by the car. 

He felt a light tap on his shoulder and looked to see Jisung sleeping with his head resting on his shoulder. Doyoung grinned. He had to admit the kid was cute. He had no idea why someone wouldn’t want him.

“Oh let me get him for you! He’s been running around all day,” Youngho’s husband said, “I’m Taeil by the way. Johnny can’t stop talking about you. Now he has someone to reminisce the old times with.” Taeil holds out his hands and Doyoung transfers the sleeping boy into the arms of the brunette. 

“Who’s Johnny?” Doyoung asks. He looks around looking for another person. 

Taeil looks at him with blank eyes before he says, “Oh. Johnny is Youngho! He wanted a new start when he decided to stay here, so he changed his name.” They walk into the house and Taeil disappears into a room down the hall. 

Doyoung inspects the house. It’s quite modest. The rooms were small. Everything in the house was practical and the objects ancient and practically historical. There was a television in a sitting area. Doyoung immediately walks towards that room where Youngho, well Johnny now, was picking up some stray toys and trying to tidy up the room. 

“Johnny, huh?” Doyoung rests against the wall and raises an eyebrow at the former traveler.

Johnny shrugs and then his eyes catch onto Doyoung’s body and his eyes widen, “Holy Xexos!” He runs up to Doyoung and gently but firmly grabs his arm for closer inspection. Doyoung flinches, not realizing how painful the injury still was. “What happened here? Did the guy put up a fight?”

“No. It was a damn box on wheels. I believe they call it cars,” Doyoung grits his teeth as Johnny tightens his grip, “Hey watch it!”

Johnny smiles sheepishly but quickly tugs on the arm to bring him to the bathroom, “I really do miss our healing tech. Luckily, it’s not too bad; I’ve got something that can heal it up.

Renjun doesn’t look up when he hears the doors of the medical bay open. His hands are wrapped around one of Jeno’s praying and hoping that his best friend would wake up. He only wants to see his friend smile his crescent eyed smile again. The building was put on lockdown to keep the intruder from escaping so Jeno was put into their medical bay instead of transported to a hospital. 

Jeno’s condition was stable; he was injected with healing fluids. The only thing preventing Jeno from waking up was his mental state. 

“How is he?” Jaehyun’s voice is soft. He pulls up a chair right beside Renjun and grabs one of the younger’s hands into his own, “He’s going to be alright, Renjun. I’m sorry we can’t take him anywhere right now. But we can’t let the hacker escape. 

“No. I get it,” Renjun understands that the threat of the company was more important than the individual. It was what they were taught. The individual was not as important as the whole. 

Jaehyun ruffles Renjun’s hair affectionately before getting up, “Do you have your lock in gun with you?”

Renjun looks up from Jeno to look at Jaehyun, “Do we shoot on sight?” 

“We want to question them. We’re not sure what kind of threat this person is or why they’re targeting us. Just be prepared.”

With that Jaehyun gets up to leave, but that’s when the lights flicker and turn off. The backup lights worked but have to turn off for seconds at a time every quarter hour as the backup current was refreshed. Jaehyun grips the gun in his hand and sees Renjun get up from the bed to stand beside Jaehyun at the door. It was barely audible, but footsteps were coming from somewhere outside. They both nod at each other and open the door. The hallway was dark and eerily quiet.

“Our night vision lens aren’t working,” Renjun mutters. He moves outside of the room and presses flat against the wall, “This hacker is good.”

Hurried footsteps were getting closer to them. Jaehyun covers Renjun’s mouth with one of his hands and holds out his gun with the other. The person was full on sprinting at this point. Just then the lights turn back on and Jaehyun is sprinting off to where he knows the person is running. He rounds the corner just in time to see someone in black uniform and mask turn the corner. 

“Fuck,” he whispers. He bolsters his gun and charges after the uniformed culprit who was also carrying a gun. He rounds the corner and stops when he sees the culprit standing in the middle of the hallway staring right at him.

“Well hello there handsome,” the culprit smiles at him and Jaehyun’s eyes widen in recognition. 

The culprit holds up a little button in one of his hands and looks at it, “Isn’t it amazing how good technology will be in a few years?” He holds the button out to inspect it, “This little thing can cause the whole system mainframe to shut down.”

Renjun who finally arrived, froze right behind Jaehyun. The culprit walked closer towards them with his gun out. Renjun quickly pointed his own gun at the man and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the man but reflected off of the uniform and rebounded. It was going to hit Renjun but he moved at the very last second and the bullet disintegrated in the air, power run out. 

Jaehyun hadn’t moved an inch, still staring at the masked culprit, “Why are you doing this?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll find out.” The man seemed to laugh. He was about to run off when someone ran into him full force, knocking him to the ground. 

“Let go of me!” The man was thrashing on the ground. He didn’t expect this to happen. He hadn’t planned for this to happen. 

Sicheng held the man to the ground while Kun came out of nowhere and put a paralyzer machine to the man’s neck. The culprit froze in place. 

“Let’s find out who this man is,” Sicheng took off mask. He backed away when he saw who it was. Everyone looked frozen in place as well. 

“What’s going on?”

Everyone turned as they heard Jungwoo. He came towards them and stopped short of the person who was frozen on the ground due to the paralyzer. 

Jungwoo stumbled back and fell down. He was looking at a much older version of himself.

Doyoung looks down at Jisung who was tugging at his hand. The little boy is smiling up at him as he points at a truck that was playing a weird happy song. 

“Uncle! I want ice cream.” For such a small boy, Jisung has a strong grip and Doyoung feels himself being pulled towards the truck. The man inside the truck, who is wearing a yellow hat, waves at Jisung and motions for him to come closer. 

Alarm bells rings inside of Doyoung’s head and he immediately picks up Jisung protectively. That man has pedophile written all over him. “No Sungie. Let’s go to the store.”

But Jisung was squirming in his arms and shaking his head, “I want ice cream now!” Jisung was pointing at the truck. Tears were starting to stream down the boy’s cheeks and Doyoung has no idea what to do. He’s never handled children before. He doesn’t know how to handle tears at all. It was odd enough when Jungwoo had cried after Lucas seriously injured himself on a mission that one time. 

_“I don’t know what to do to help him. I feel so helpless.”_

_Jungwoo looked up at him and Doyoung’s mouth dropped when he saw Jungwoo leaking water. Tears. So rare in this time period. Apparently tears happened frequently back in the past but it was something so foreign to Doyoung. _

_“Are those?” _

_“Yeah I was surprised myself,” Jungwoo says as he wipes at the water on his cheeks, “It just hurts hyung.” Jungwoo pouts as he looks up at Doyoung with his big doe eyes, “I think I love him.” _

_Doyoung sits down beside Jungwoo and awkwardly pats his head, “You know it’s physically and scientifically impossible to be in pain over something like this. We know he’s going to be okay. The doctors said he will be fine to leave tomorrow.” Doyoung was trying to say something through his shock. First Jungwoo was crying and secondly, Jungwoo was in love. This was too much for one conversation. _

_Jungwoo can’t help but laugh, “You really suck at this you know.” _

Doyoung shivers at the memory. He wasn’t good at comforting people and he definitely wasn’t good when it came to tears. But he did know that people who cried generally needed comforting. 

“I….uh….” Doyoung was internally freaking out. He could handle espionage, and tailing people. He was one of the strongest stop travelers at NCT. But he couldn’t handle emotions. He couldn’t understand the large range of emotions people in 2019 felt nor the volatility of those emotions. Tears terrified him.

“Aww, it’s okay Sungie. Of course we can get you some ice cream.” Doyoung turns to see Taeil walking up to them. He stuffs his car keys into his jean pockets and opens up his arms so Doyoung can deposit his son into them. 

“I’m sorry. I’m not really good with…” Doyoung trails off.

“It’s okay. I understand,” Taeil smiles at him and points at the Han River, “Why don’t you sit by the river? It’s really nice this time of year.”

Doyoung turns and sees the infamous Han River. It was definitely different from the replica they had at home. He could hear the water running and the land to the river was at a slope. The river moved in waves. It was imperfect, but at the same time it was so much better than the replica at home. The water’s surface sparkled in the sunlight and he could see kids wading into the river and splashing each other.

He walked down to where the land sloped and sat down. He turned around and could see little Jisung jumping excitedly as he pointed to all of the ice cream pictures on the truck. Taeil was bending down next to Jisung and had a finger out as if saying ‘pick only one.’

He felt something jump onto his legs and turned back around to see a familiar dog looking up at him with joy.

Ruby gave a friendly bark before climbing up Doyoung’s legs and then went on her hind legs so her front paws were pushing on Doyoung’s chest. Doyoung fell back in alarm. Ruby barked and then started licking Doyoung’s face. Doyoung screamed but it only encouraged Ruby to lick even more fiercely. 

“Germs! You savage beast! Get away from me!” Doyoung pushes the dog away but she only runs back to him with a wagging tail. Doyoung holds up his hand to stop the dog from climbing onto him again. 

“Stop! Sit!” Doyoung says in a commanding voice. 

Ruby stops for a second but then bounds up next to him and lays down right next to Doyoung’s legs, tail still wagging. 

This is exactly how Johnny finds him half an hour later. Doyoung is lying down on the bank of the river with Ruby resting right beside him. Doyoung has his hand resting on top of Ruby’s head, unconsciously petting the dog’s head. 

“Don’t tell me you bought Sungie a pet,” Johnny bends down to pet Ruby who happily licks at his hand and then proceeds to jump onto him, “But he’s very friendly I’ll give you that.” Johnny laughs as the dog keeps on attacking his face. 

Jisung runs forward and wraps his arms around Ruby, shrieking in happiness when the dog begins licking his face. 

“Uh..no. It found me,” Doyoung glares at the dog but his eyes soften when he sees Jisung pick Ruby up and run towards their car, “Daddy, Appa can we please keep him?”

“Jisung, wait for me. Be careful,” Taeil runs after Jisung who was starting to slow down with the additional weight in his arms. 

Johnny watches as his husband catches up to their son and picks him up. Ruby begins licking at Taeil’s face, still in Jisung’s arms. Jisung laughs and begins kissing Taeil’s other cheek too. Doyoung looks over at Johnny and there was so much fondness and love in the other’s eyes that Doyoung who never experienced what love was, felt like he was beginning to understand it. 

“God I love them,” Johnny whispers; there was a big smile on his face. Johnny motions for him to follow and they quickly start walking after the two. 

“Well unless you know the owner, I think we won’t be able to get rid of him,” Johnny says to Doyoung as he bends down to pick up Jisung’s forgotten sandals that fell off in his run to the car. Ruby, who saw them approaching, jumped out of the car and ran right up to Doyoung and pawed at him.

“It’s a her,” Doyoung picked her up, “And yeah. I do know the owner.”

When Taeyong opens the door, Doyoung is surprised to see a distressed man in front of him. Taeyong’s eyes are swollen red and his nose is red. He can barely open his eyes through the tears continuously flowing down his face and he was hiccupping. 

“What are you----Ruby?!” Taeyong sobs as he bends down and picks Ruby up into his arms and continuously starts kissing her all over. 

“Oh my god. You’re safe. I thought I lost you for good.”

Before Doyoung can comprehend what’s happening, Taeyong throws his arms around Doyoung and sobs into his shoulder, “Thank you so much for bringing her to me. I…you don’t know…how much…this means to me,” Taeyong says between sniffles. 

“It uh… it was really nothing,” Doyoung has his arms pinned to his side as he gets the living lights squeezed out of him. Taeyong’s arms are wrapped around him in a fierce hug and he’s sobbing into Doyoung’s shoulder. 

It’s disgusting. And the tears are giving Doyoung additional stress. 

“I…I really didn’t think…I’d see her again,” Taeyong hiccups between words and burrows his face even deeper into Doyoung’s neck. Doyoung actually feels either Taeyong’s sobs or snot and that’s when he pushes the other away. 

“Please don’t leave. I owe you one,” Taeyong grabs his hand and without asking permission, pulls Doyoung into his home and shuts the door behind them.

“I’m usually not careless you know,” Taeyong is wiping away his tears with the edge of his collar. He kneels down and picks Ruby up into his arms and smothers the tiny dog in kisses. He keeps his head there for a long time in Ruby’s body and Doyoung suspects he’s started crying again.

“I’m just glad she’s okay,” Doyoung says awkwardly. He can’t help but wonder how this guy winds up being the person who later becomes a murderer. 

Taeyong takes his face out of Ruby and drops her gently to the ground, “Please stay. I’ll treat you for a meal. Have you eaten yet?” 


End file.
